Taebaek Mountains

Taebaek Mountains
The mountains (marked in red)
Korean name
Hangul	태백산맥
Hanja	TháiBạchSơnMạch
Revised Romanization	Taebaek Sanmaek
McCune–Reischauer	T'aebaek Sanmaek

The Taebaek Mountains in November 2007

TheTaebaek Mountains(Korean:태백산맥) are a mountain range that stretches acrossNorth KoreaandSouth Korea.They form the main ridge of theKorean peninsula.

Geography

The Taebaek mountains are located along the eastern edge of the peninsula and run along the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula. The Hwangnyong Mountain in North Korea (1268 meters) forms the northern end of the range.Busanlies at the southern end of this mountain range, thus making the mountain range a total length of over 500 kilometers, averaging about 1000 meters in height.

Prominent peaks of the range includeMount Seoraksan(1,708 m),Mount Kumgangsan(1,638 m),Mount Taebaeksan(1,566.7 m) andMount Odaesan(1,563 m). To the east, the mountain range falls steeply into the sea, but to the west, there are more gentle slopes. Many spurs stretch southwest. The most important rivers of South Korea, theHan Riverand theNakdong River,both originate in the Taebaek Mountains.

Ecology

Many of the slopes are extensively covered in forests.

Industry

Economically, the Taebaek mountains are important for the mining ofiron,coal,tungsten,fluorite,andlimestone.

Attractions

Manggyeongsa Temple in Hyeol-dongTaebaek,Gangwon-do Provinceat an altitude of 1,460 meters onMount Taebaeksan,is a temple built to enshrine the statue of theBodhisattva of wisdom.It was built byJajang,aSilla Dynastymonk. The "Dragon Spring" at the entrance of the temple is known as the highest spring in Korea.

The2018 Winter Olympicstook place inPyeongchang,Gangwon-do,located in the mountains.

Taebaek is also a name of apoomsaethat is performed by the 3rd Dan black belts in Tae Kwon Do. Taebaek is mostly practised in Southern South Korea.

See also

• Baekdudaegan
• List of mountains in Korea
• Geography of South Korea
• Sobaek Mountains